The source of Benguela Niños in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Open accessAbstract
The intermittent occurrence of anomalous warm events in the upwelling regions of the Pacific – El Niños – has been intensively studied. Pacific Niños have striking effects on the local ecosystem, hence on the fisheries, and on rainfall. Similar dramatic events have been observed in the South Atlantic off the coasts of Angola and Namibia and named Benguela Niños. They tend not to occur in unison with their Pacific counterpart and may thus have unrelated forcing mechanisms. Using an ocean general circulation model, forced by real winds and verified with satellite data, it is shown that Benguela Niños are generated by specific wind stress events in the west‐central equatorial Atlantic, and progress from there as subsurface temperature anomalies that eventually outcropped only at the south‐west African coast. These results suggest that it now may be possible to predict the occurrence of these disruptive events with a lead‐time of 2 months.
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Our results disagree with Latif and Grötzner (2000), Florenchie et al. (2003), and Wang (2006) with regard to the oceanic wave propagation's role in the origin of the equatorial and South Atlantic SST variability.
“Our results presented above disagree with Latif and Grötzner (2000), Florenchie et al. (2003), and Wang (2006) with regard to the oceanic wave propagation's role in the origin of the equatorial and South Atlantic SST variability.”
From Tropical Atlantic variability modes (1979-2002). Part I: Time-evolving SST modes related to West African rainfall (2008) · cites this paper as Florenchie et al. (2003)
The Conclusion (§3, paragraph 10) says model evidence suggests equatorial thermocline perturbations propagate along the African coast as Kelvin waves and outcrop in the Benguela region. This supports a role for oceanic wave propagation in South Atlantic Benguela Niño SST anomalies, but not the broader claim about the origin of equatorial SST variability; the paper says the thermocline does not outcrop in the eastern equatorial Atlantic. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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References 15 · Cited by 155
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Rouault, M., P. Florenchie, N. Fauchereau, and C. J. C. Reason, South east tropical Atlantic warm events and southern African rainfall, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(5), 2003.
- Shannon, L. V., G. Nelson, The South Atlantic: present and past circula- tion, edited by G. Wefer, W. H. Berger, G. Siedler, and D. J. Webb, pp. 163 -210, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1996.
- Authors
- Florenchie, P., Lutjeharms, J. R. E., Reason, C. J. C., Masson, S., & Rouault, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Oceanography Department University of Cape Town South Africa
- Frontier Research System for Global Change Kanagawa Japan
- Corresponding author
- Florenchie, Pierre
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2003-05-15
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 10
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W1495407862
- Cited by
- 155
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 7.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Keywords
- Benguela Niño, wind stress anomalies, equatorial Atlantic, subsurface temperature anomalies, ocean-atmosphere interaction, ocean general circulation model
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